Entrepreneurship wasn't part of the plan for Sari Sartawi. But after losing his passport in Australia and being unable to figure out an affordable and convenient solution, his mind was set into overdrive on how he might disrupt the courier industry.
Sari Sartawi wasn't thinking of entrepreneurship when he joined the Ivey Business School’s MBA program last spring. It wasn’t part of the plan.
So much so that he didn't even sign up for the Entrepreneurship Stream.
But Sartawi didn't plan on losing his passport while traveling in Australia either. And what transpired down under has changed the course of his journey.
It all started during the short June break built into the MBA Program.
During his Australian holiday, Sartawi accidentally damaged his Jordanian passport, washing it with the rest of his laundry.
What followed was a stressful few days of communicating with foreign embassies, and trying to find affordable and convenient courier options; definitely not the best way to spend a vacation anywhere.
He thought of sending the damaged document through established courier services and having a newly minted passport sent back via the same channels. However, that was an expensive option and would take anywhere from 7-10 days; That was time that he didn't have.
Sartawi wondered how easy it might have been for someone traveling between Australia and Jordan to have carried the new document for him.
After finally receiving an emergency passport, Sartawi was able to board a plane back to Canada and recommence his MBA.
But something had changed.
Sartawi was constantly replaying his ordeal and wondering how others might have managed the nightmare scenario. That's the origin story for Courier & Share, Sartawi’s start-up that is seeking to utilize a network of travellers to affordably carry goods.
“I am seeking to create a booking experience that is so convenient that I can book a delivery with just a few taps on the phone and track my parcel in real-time,” said Sartawi.
“Uber for courier services,” seems self-explanatory enough but there was a lot of work to do if he was going to make an impact in the $480 billion courier service industry. For decades, much of that market has been dominated by UPS, FedEx and DHL.
However, in an age where new players are trying to disrupt every industry imaginable, Sartawi thought the courier service industry was worth a shot as well.
It needs disruption, considering it's based on a very traditional, older business model.
And it's not about scaling the walls of the big three. As Sartawi is researching the competitive landscape, his gaze is drawn to other start-ups in the space that offer similar services to Courier & Share; start-ups that haven't been able to build brand awareness or the customer base.
For Sartawi, understanding the gaps in their business models will be vital to not repeat the same mistakes, while offering consumers something new.
Rethinking entrepreneurship
Having settled back from his trip to Australia. Sartawi was looking for a way to expand on an idea that wouldn’t go away.
In the fall of 2023, Sartawi attended the Entrepreneur Experience, a Morrissette Entrepreneurship initiative that invites students from all backgrounds to consider entrepreneurship as a potential career.
After the event, he connected with the institute’s entrepreneurship advisors and began the journey he wasn’t expecting to make at the start of his MBA.
Over the past few months, Sartawi has begun testing the idea within Ontario, trying to discover his target audience, and what they are willing to pay and what they are open to moving through his network of carriers. This testing has included creating groups on social media to discover frequent travellers across Ontario and utilizing his own weekends to traverse goods up and down the 401. The experience has been invaluable, and Sartawi has discovered a number of groups that really need the service he is offering; from consumers with highly restrictive diets that need homemade food every week, to small start-ups that need to ship goods to retailers in the Greater Toronto Area.
It's a one-to-one sort of relationship so it helps me better understand what they really want, and what really matters to them.
At the end of last year, Sartawi was accepted to join the Western Accelerator, which would become his first major exposure to entrepreneurship education.
Sartawi was also selected as one of 12 teams to participate in the Ivey Business Plan Competition in January. The competition is known for its tough judging panel, and while not everyone took to his idea, the feedback was important. He was also quite impressed by the teams that did make the finals, where they showcased the full breadth of what it takes to think through and execute a solution.
As he builds the venture day by day, weekend by weekend, Sartawi is slowly unlocking the secret sauce that might become the mainstay for Courier & Share’s new business model.
It's safe to say that this start-up is out on delivery.